Hailee Steinfeld is proud to say goodbye to Dickinson with a 'perfect' ending

Warning: This article includes spoilers for the Dickinson series finale.

Well, Death (Wiz Khalifa), Dickinson's work is over.

Coincidentally, just two days after the end of Hawkeye, Hailee Steinfeld's other beloved series penned its goodbye letter. The Apple TV+ comedy about the early days of aspiring poet-turned-iconic poet Emily Dickinson (Steinfeld) wrapped up Friday with the series finale "This was a Poet," which found Emily determined to make "a new kind of dress" for "a new kind of poetry."

As she stayed mostly confined to her room, downstairs the Dickinson family welcomed Emily's pen pal and eventual mentor Thomas Wentworth Higginson (Gabriel Ebert). Emily never came down, believing their relationship was "strictly text" (classic Dickinson!). But in the series' final moments, Emily is finally outside and down at the beach (with a dog and mermaids), where she hops in a boat and begins rowing towards her future. "Wait for me," she says in voiceover, "I'm coming."

To celebrate the Dickinson finale, EW chatted with Steinfeld about dealing with a lot of emotions at once, being proud of their "perfect" ending, and feeling grateful for Emily, her writing, and Dickinson's writing.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: First off, how are you feeling? It's kind of a fun and wild twist for you to be bracing for two big finales two days apart. I'm sure it's a mix of a lot of different emotions.

HAILEE STEINFELD: Yeah, it's been so wild. It's a lot happening at once. Wrapping each of these shows feels like the end, but then you realize that you get to relive the experience weekly and make discoveries along with the audience and see how things turned out and see how people react, which is always really fun. And now it's like, "Why do they have to happen at the same time?! This is a lot for me to handle!" But, my god, I'm so grateful that the people are loving each of these shows.

Maybe it's good to just get all the emotions out at once instead of having to go through it twice.

You're right, maybe it is for the best. [Laughs]

I'll start with the obvious Dickinson finale question: Like Emily, are you ready for a world where you don't have to wear these corsets and restrictive dresses anymore? Maybe there's the one relief of the show ending.

Here's the thing, you're absolutely right. Yes, I had a moment where I was like, "You know, it's bittersweet, 100 percent," but I took a video that last day being, like, "No more corsets!" And then I stopped the recording and was like, "I probably shouldn't be so sure, because you never know what's going to happen." But I'm definitely excited about the idea that we've left that territory for a while.

More seriously, going back a few steps, how involved were you with creator Alena Smith's decision to end the show, and why did that feel like the right move?

I guess you could say the idea of this show being a three season journey was always part of Alena's plan. That was something that she had had in mind and had thought about. Look, as much as I didn't want this to end, I think it could not have wrapped itself up in a more perfect way. And there's that thought of not wanting to overstay your welcome, but to make an impact while you can with what it is that you're doing — and I feel like we did just that. I'm so, so proud of each of these seasons individually, and as a whole I think we created a really beautiful story that unfolds in ways I could have never even imagined. And as someone being so a part of the show, being able to say that is very exciting, to know that I was constantly thrown surprises and challenges that I couldn't see coming my way. I loved every second of being a part of this show and I really am so proud of how it's come to an end.

What were your conversations like with Alena about how it would end? Was there anything you were specifically interested in doing or seeing before you said goodbye to Emily?

I would get these random phone calls from Alena throughout — even seasons 1 and 2 — where she would have these wild ideas. She would literally just call, I'd pick up the phone, "Hey, how's it going," and she'd go, "Hey, I think for season 3 we should do this, this, this and that. Okay, I actually have to go, I'm jumping on another call." And that would be it. Then the next week it would be something else with these crazier, wilder ideas that would have nothing to do with the last phone call, or it would be an extension of what she had said. She was constantly brainstorming and making us feel a part of that process, even though I've always felt like she's known exactly what this show is and was going to be since day one.

But with season 3 being mainly about the idea of hopelessness and hopefulness, and whether or not art can be a source of light, and whether or not the future can be better than the past, Alena and I had this conversation multiple times, that in order for Emily to be this champion of hope, you can't feel hope without despair. And I felt like it was important that we saw Emily sort of get knocked off her feet and experience this real hopelessness, and we see her experience that within her own family, and within the divide of the nation. We see her feel all of this. Although she was isolated in her room, we take her to a war hospital and see her on the front lines; she feels the impact and the pain and the loss of the nation. And so coming full-circle, where our show ends with Emily having spent so much time tending to everyone else's wounds, she's sort of tending to her own in this last and final moment that we see her. We leave her where she is heading into her future of the poems that she hasn't written yet, the person that she has yet to become that we now all know and cherish her as. So the conversations were endless, but I'm constantly blown away by Alena and how she has really always had this figured out from the beginning.

I was fascinated by the build up of the Emily and Thomas Wentworth Higginson relationship ends with him making it all the way to the Dickinson home but not meeting her. Between that and Emily essentially not interacting with the rest of her family, the episode really pivoted from what a traditional series would do for its finale in relation to those stories. Did those directions feel like pure Dickinson moves to you?

I remember there being conversations about this, and with a big part of that decision being the fact that the last moment that we have with Emily and Sue (Ella Hunt) is in episode 9, which I also felt was sort of in Dickinson fashion; to have their season finale moment before the season is really even over. But yet, there's still these hints in that moment where she knows that Higginson is downstairs, "Is Sue going to be mad?' It's about Sue, and then Sue goes full protective mode over Emily with Mrs. Dickinson over the whole Higginson thing. I think there's a connection there, it ties back to them. So, yeah, we get so close and then we never see them meet, when we know that they actually did in real-life. But I feel like this final episode ends on a high and hopeful note, looking into the future.

Alena and the writers did an incredible job blending real stories and history from Emily's life with a bit of fiction, but was there something that you were especially surprised to learn about her during this experience?

I feel like I had several moments where I would feel like, "Okay, there's no possible way that this could be real," and then those were the moments that were. Even at this point now, it's been awhile since we've wrapped this show, and I feel like I will forever be blown away by this person. And the fact that I got to even play her is a separate fact. But this is somebody that really paved the way for women, for creatives, for writers, and, obviously, for poets, more specifically. I'm blown away by the fact that she was able to live through a time where so much of her true self was forbidden and she lived her life unapologetically as best she could. I'm so grateful for this show serving as an introduction to her world and her work, because I will definitely take it with me.

It feels Dickinson introduced Emily to a new generation. There's probably a lot of younger people that have heard the name but probably didn't know much more about her than that. So what do you hope the legacy of the show is in how we think about Emily Dickinson moving forward?

I've always felt connected to this show in the sense that since day one it's felt like it's been about not putting people in a box and not labeling a certain type of behavior. And I have had the absolute privilege of encountering fans from around the world who have watched this show and have shared with me that this show has made them feel less alone. It's made them feel seen and heard, and it's helped them through moments in their lives that where maybe they were confused or they didn't have resources or people in their lives that they felt they could talk to and express themselves in who they truly are. It's hard for me to even put into words how incredible that makes me feel, as somebody who is doing something that they love and is trusted enough to play a character that is so heroic and iconic and bold. So I just hope that people do watch this show and feel seen and understood and excited by this world and the history that it's rooted in. And I hope that they fall in love with this writing, because it's really special and something I wish I would've come across sooner in my life.

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